MOMENTS | Producer Columbus “Rahki” Smith x Kendrick Lamar “i”

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Minneapolis producer Columbus “Rahki” Smith crafted lead singles for Ab-Soul’s These Days and Kendrick Lamar’s currently untitled upcoming album. In a recent interview with The FADER Rahki discusses the process behind Kendrick Lamar’s “i”, a single that artfully blends samples with live instrumentation.
When he and Lamar started working together, Lamar decided he wanted to do a remake of an Isley Brothers song. Rahki had his band Thundercat do a replay of The Isley Brothers’ ” That Lady” and recorded one take, keeping all the mistakes to “keep the human part in the music”. Lamar then flew down to St. Louis to get Ronald Isley’s blessing to sample the song and got Isley to actually sing in “i” too.